Elizabeth Warren, hard-liner

The White House-Senate deal would tie rates to 10-year Treasury notes, capping them at 8.25 percent for undergrads, 9.5 percent for graduate students and 10.5 percent for parents borrowing money. The bill would lock in rates for the life of the loan and reduce the deficit by $715 million, well below the nearly $1 billion in deficit reduction that negotiators started at.

But liberal critics opposed the deal because it continues the program that will bring in nearly $200 billion over the next 10 years at the expense of students. Warren also likened the bill’s opening interest rate of less than 4 percent for undergraduates to the “teaser rates” of mortgages and credit cards because rates are now tied to Treasury notes. As interest rates rise in the coming years, the loan rate for undergraduates could eventually eclipse the 6.8 percent rate that went into effect on July after rates doubled.

The substance and style of Warren’s challenges to the country’s financial system have made her a favorite of her party’s liberal wing. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) was effusive in his praise for Warren, whom he called a like-minded lawmaker on the ideological spectrum.

“Sometimes I just — how can we be so lucky? I mean that sounds pretty gooey, I admit, but I mean it,” Rockefeller said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, signed on to the deal but said he sympathized with Warren’s arguments.

“I think she’s onto something,” he said.

What you won’t necessarily hear is the senator singing her own praises.

Warren has been careful on when to assert herself and refuses to acknowledge reporters in the hallway of the Capitol as many of her colleagues do. (Warren declined multiple interview requests for this article.)

Rockefeller said it’s a sensible strategy for a freshman senator who is already a star in liberal circles: “That’s her way of not trying to be the big-shot that she is too early,” he said.

But Warren was back in the spotlight last week as the Senate’s presiding officer when Cordray was confirmed — and was sitting in the front row of the audience when Cordray was sworn at the White House on Wednesday. That’s where the president privately urged Warren on the student loan deal, telling her the plan wasn’t that bad, sources said. She wasn’t convinced.

Senior Democrats are quick to praise Warren, but they say that pragmatism must sometimes trump idealism.

“I respect Elizabeth’s point of view and her intelligence when it comes to this issue. She is challenging some basic premises of the student loan program,” Durbin told POLITICO. “I would join her in those challenges, but I’m trying to work within the world of political reality.”

Another top negotiator on the talks, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), said of Warren’s criticism: “Everybody had to give and take on this — that’s the way a compromise should work out.”

Still, Warren’s office was quick to cite several bipartisan efforts from her first few months. She has teamed up on a fishing disaster funding amendment with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska); the Jumpstart GSE Reform Act with Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and David Vitter (R-La.); and revisions to the Glass-Steagall Act with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Angus King (I-Maine).

Some Republicans say they are willing to work with her despite her staunchly liberal views.

“She’s got a lot of energy; she’s got a lot of pizazz. There are certain issues where she brings instant credibility,” McCain said. “Most smart people come to the Senate and know the way to get things done are to work in a bipartisan fashion.”